The present invention relates generally to electronic keyboard instruments capable of generating tones of a plurality of tone colors and tone reproduction methods for use with the electronic keyboard instruments, and more particularly to an improved electronic keyboard instrument and tone reproduction method therefor which can create or set up feelings or senses of expansion, depth, etc. of tones separately for each tone color selectable on the electronic keyboard instrument and thereby faithfully reproduce characteristics of tones of various types of natural musical instruments.
Among various conventionally-known electronic keyboard instruments capable of generating tones of a plurality of tone colors (timbres) is one which individually assigns tone signals of various tone colors to reproduction systems of left and right channels and then audibly reproduces the assigned tone signals through left and right speakers after imparting a desired effect, such as reverberation, to the tone signals.
Although the above-mentioned conventional electronic keyboard instrument can set sound image localization, in a horizontal direction, (i.e., horizontal sound image localization) of tones for each tone color selectable on the instrument, it can not create or set up feelings or senses of expansion, depth, etc. of tones separately for each of the selectable tone colors, so that it can not reproduce characteristics of tones of various types of natural musical instruments.
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved electronic keyboard instrument and tone reproduction method therefor which can set up senses of expansion, depth, etc. of tones separately for each tone color selectable on the instrument and thereby faithfully reproduce characteristics of tones of various types of natural musical instruments.
In order to accomplish the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides a tone reproduction method for an electronic keyboard instrument, which comprises the steps of: providing a front speaker in an orientation facing a human player and a non-front speaker in an orientation not facing the human player; setting tone volume allocations to be applied to the individual speakers, separately for each of a plurality of tone source channels that generate tone signals of respective tone colors; assigning the tone signals of the individual tone source channels to respective reproduction systems of the speakers, with the tone volume allocations set by the step of setting; and mixing the assigned tone signals of the individual tone source channels, separately for each of the reproduction systems of the speakers and audibly reproducing the mixed tone signals via corresponding ones of the speakers.
With the present invention thus arranged, it is possible to create or set up senses of depth and expansion of tones by increasing the tone volume allocations to the non-front speaker. Further, by setting appropriate channel-by-channel tone volumes to be allocated (i.e., tone volume allocations) to the non-front speaker relative to channel-by-channel tone volume allocations to be applied to the front speaker for each of the tone colors selectable on the instrument (namely, generatable by the tone generator section of the instrument), the present invention can set up senses of depth, expansion, etc. of tones for each of the selectable tone colors and thereby faithfully reproduce characteristics of tones of various types of natural musical instruments.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electronic keyboard instrument which comprises: a front speaker provided in an orientation facing a human player; a non-front speaker provided in an orientation not facing the human player; a tone generator section that generates tone signals of respective tone colors through a plurality of tone source channels; an assignment section that assigns the tone signals of the individual tone source channels to respective reproduction systems of the speakers, with tone volume allocations set individually for the reproduction systems; and a mixing section that mixes the assigned tone signals of the individual tone source channels, separately for each of the reproduction systems of the speakers and supplies the mixed tone signals to corresponding ones of the reproduction systems of the speakers.
In the electronic keyboard instrument of the present invention, the front speaker may include left and right front speakers provided on a front surface of a casing of the electronic keyboard instrument. In this case, it is possible to set horizontal sound image localization for each of the selectable tone colors, by setting tone volume allocations to be applied to the left and right front speakers for each of the selectable tone colors.
Further, the non-front speaker may include a rear speaker provided on a rear surface of the casing and facing rearwardly of the electronic keyboard instrument. By increasing tone volume allocations to the rear speaker, it is possible to particularly enhance a sense of depth of generated tones. Also, it is possible to set a sense of depth of generated tones for each of the selectable tone colors, by setting tone volume allocations to the rear speaker for each of the selectable tone colors (i.e., on a tone-color-by-tone-color basis). For example, increasing the tone volume allocations to the rear speaker in relation to a piano tone color can create a sense of depth of generated tones in much the same way as in a real grand piano. The rear speaker may comprise left and right rear speakers, for example.
The non-front speaker may include an upper speaker provided on an upper surface of the casing and facing upwardly of the electronic keyboard instrument. By increasing tone volume allocations to the upper speaker, it is possible to particularly enhance a sense of expansion of generated tones. Also, it is possible to set a sense of expansion for each of the selectable tone colors, by setting tone volume allocations to the upper speaker for each of the selectable tone colors. For example, increasing the tone volume allocations to the upper speaker in relation to a flute tone color can create a sense of expansion of flute tones. The upper speaker may comprise left and right upper speakers, for example.
The electronic keyboard instrument of the present invention may further comprise a woofer speaker provided in an orientation facing the human player. In this case, the assignment section may assign the tone signals of the individual tone source channels to a reproduction system of the woofer speaker with tone volume allocations individually set for the reproduction system of the woofer speaker, and the mixing section may mix the tone signals assigned to the reproduction system of the woofer speaker and supply the resultant mixed tone signals to the reproduction system of the woofer speaker. In this case, it is possible to set tone volume allocations to the woofer speaker for each of the selectable tone colors, and thus, by increasing the tone volume allocations to the woofer speaker for a particular musical instrument tone including low-frequency components, the particular musical instrument tone can be reproduced in a realistic manner.
The electronic keyboard instrument of the present invention may further comprise a storage section that, for each tone color generatable by the tone generator section, stores tone volume allocations of tone signals to be applied to individual ones of the reproduction systems of the speakers. In this case, for each of the tone source channels generating tone signals of respective tone colors, the assignment section read outs the stored tone volume allocations to be applied to the individual reproduction systems of the speakers, from the storage section, in response to a predetermined readout instruction, and then sets the read-out tone volume allocations as the tone volume allocations to be applied to the individual reproduction systems of the speakers. The electronic keyboard instrument may further comprise a tone-volume-allocation modification section that modifies, separately for each designated one of the tone source channels, the tone volume allocations set in the assignment section in response to predetermined modifying operation by a user. Namely, in this case, the modified tone volume allocations may be stored in the storage section, so that the assignment section can read out the stored tone volume allocations from the storage section in response to a readout instruction upon powering-on of the musical instrument or at any other appropriate time and then set the individual speaker reproduction systems to the read-out tone volume allocations.
The electronic keyboard instrument of the present invention may further comprise a vibrator provided on a casing of the electronic keyboard instrument. In this case, the assignment section assigns the tone signals of the individual tone source channels to a drive system of the vibrator with tone volume allocations separately set for the drive system of the vibrator, and the mixing section mixes the assigned tone signals of the individual tone source channels and supplies the mixed tone signals to the drive system of the vibrator. Thus, driving the vibrator with the tone signals can vibrate the casing of the instrument, and depending on the position of the vibrator, vibrations of the vibrator can be transmitted to the floor to cause vibrations of the floor. For example, by driving the vibrator with tone signals having a tone color of a particular musical instrument, such as a piano, contrabass or cello, whose vibrations are usually transmitted to the floor of a performing stage, a performance of the musical instrument can be reproduced in a realistic manner. Note that the vibrator drive system may be arranged to particularly extract low-frequency components of the tone signals.
The electronic keyboard instrument of the present invention may further comprise a tone parameter impartment section that imparts respective predetermined tone parameters to the tone signals of the individual tone source channels. In this case, the assignment section assigns the tone signals of the individual tone source channels, having been imparted with the respective predetermined tone parameters by the tone parameter impartment section, to the corresponding reproduction systems of the speakers with the tone volume allocations set individually for the reproduction systems of the speakers. Note that the predetermined tone parameters to be imparted to a tone signal of each of the tone source channels may include parameters of any one or more of a frequency characteristic, delay time and reverberation characteristic.
The electronic keyboard instrument of the present invention may further comprise a second tone parameter impartment section that imparts respective predetermined tone parameters to the tone signals of the individual reproduction systems of the speakers having been mixed by the mixing section. In this case too, the predetermined tone parameters to be imparted to a tone signal of each of the tone source channels may include parameters of any one or more of a frequency characteristic, delay time and reverberation characteristic. With this arrangement, desired tone characteristics can be set separately for each of the speaker reproduction systems. The electronic keyboard instrument of the present invention may further comprise a tone volume adjustment section that individually adjusts tone volumes of the tone signals of the reproduction systems of the speakers having been mixed by the mixing section.
The following will describe embodiments of the present invention, but it should be appreciated that the present invention is not limited to the described embodiments and various modifications of the invention are possible without departing from the basic principles of the invention. The scope of the present invention is therefore to be determined solely by the appended claims.